As the demand for food delivery increases, so does the competition. While competitors are trying to outdo one another by claiming to be more affordable, faster, that they have better UX, etc., there’s still one niche that many aren’t prioritising to serve.
Amongst these apps that are trying to cater to a variety of cuisines and diets, Gulshan thought, wouldn’t it be nice if vegetarians or vegans could just have a platform of their own?
“Getting vegetarian meals or products has always been challenging for me. I couldn’t get everything in just one place and oftentimes had to go to different apps and sites just to do so, which costs more too,” Gulshan shared her frustrations with Vulcan Post.
Noticing a blue ocean, she and Mandeep set off to start a food delivery platform that offers vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based products.
Still in their infancy
Zesty Clickz commenced operations a few months ago in April 2021 and is operated by a team of 7, utilising Gulshan and Mandeep’s backgrounds in IT.
Prior to Zesty Clickz, Gulshan would get her vegetarian meal fixes or products from online groups and home-based businesses on social media, which as mentioned, weren’t the most convenient of ways. Hence, she and Mandeep saw enough potential in this platform to invest RM90K to jumpstart it.
Today, the platform houses 65 merchants made up of a variety of vegan/vegetarian restaurants, cafes, stalls, home-based businesses, etc.
There are 3 methods of delivery with Zesty Clickz:
- Lalamove for on-demand delivery,
- YTT Logistics for pre-order delivery (whose charges are much lower and fixed for Klang Valley),
- Merchants’ self-delivery (merchants share their pricing with the team and they’ll update the backend information specific to their eatery).
When they first started out in April, they processed about 110 orders, which grew to 460 orders in May, and they saw over 550 orders in June.
Who says we lack plant-based options?
From my place alone, I currently have 48 F&B establishments on the app that can deliver to me, with the furthest store being 26km away (the maximum radius is 30km for each merchant in Klang Valley).
This is over two-thirds of the establishments they have on their platform, and keep in mind that this variety is available to someone who lives in a less central delivery area in Cheras. Granted though, this is possible thanks to outsourced rider fleets that come with higher delivery fees.
Compared to bigger players like Grab and foodpanda, of course their list of choices isn’t as long. However, it’s because Zesty Clickz only lists merchants who strictly serve no-meat dishes, and excludes merchants who offer vegetarian/vegan options on the side.
For each establishment, you can see the delivery distance, location, opening/closing status and times, category (vegan or vegetarian or both), and also if they have any promotions going on (like an FMCO promo). Do note that their filter function is rather limited as of now.
Merchants were able to sign up with them for free until June 2021, after which the app will charge a 10% commission fee (7% of which goes to Zesty Clickz and approximately 3% which goes into their payment gateway).
Support from understanding customers drives business
“We’ve been compared to other already-established apps by customers, which makes it challenging for us to explain to them that we’re still new and are working towards more stability in our setup,” shared Gulshan, though she noted that understanding customers tended to be returning ones too.
The higher delivery fees that customers are subject to have also been another struggle for them to make their app’s service more appealing.
On their app, you’d also notice most of their merchants are younger establishments. It was harder to convince older merchants to get on board with them because they’re not as tech-savvy or simply don’t see the point of moving their business online.
Hurdles aside, the team is proud of securing more regulars upon increasing their radius, and receiving positive feedback from the communities they serve.
In the long run, Zesty Clickz is aiming to be the vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based marketplace in the country as it onboards more home-based businesses and grocery stores onto its platform. Plans for this will be further fleshed out in Q4 2021.
- You can learn more about Zesty Clickz here.
- You can read about more food delivery apps we’ve written here.
Featured Image Credit: Gulshan Rai and Mandeep Singh, founders of Zesty Clickz (left) and The Hungry Tapir (right)
